Upgrade iMac mid-2011 graphics card

The GPU in an iMac is not upgradeable nor user-replaceable. If you want a gaming computer then you should buy one. What you have is not a gaming machine.

If you could upgrade an iMac's graphics card, it would cost you a lot to do so. Accessing the innards of an iMac is, unfortunately, a tedious and time consuming process. If you could get a new card, it would cost you a lot to install it. I'd guess there are tutorials out there on taking your iMac apart, but it's not so easy to put them back together without some experience.

Not trying to be a wise guy, but an iMac with 256 MB of VRAM is not a gaming machine, and a quick Google search shows that 2011 iMacs came with 512 MB of VRAM...any chance you have an older model? If you're looking for a gaming machine, you'll either need to get a PC or one of the pricier iMacs.

As to 32 vs. 64 bit Windows, you can try the bootcamp forum, or a Windows forum, but my initial though would be that 64 bit Windows is still gaining acceptance and support form some software vendors, so 64 bit may be better in some ways, and not so much in other ways.

The 21 inch screen iMac models always had their GPUs soldered to the logic board.

So, no way to swap out a GPU in these models.

The 2009-2011, 27 inch screen models have a socketed GPU Chip ( similar idea of the old ZIF socketed CPUs of older, more upgradeable Macs of the past). While the doing is difficult, you can only install a upgrade GPU that was one of the other GPU options offered for that iMac model year, only.

Finding these optional, higher VRAM GPUs will be very expensive to obtain and very difficult to install.

It will be very difficult replacement/upgrade if you are a complete newbie to doing computer system hardware upgrades and newbie to Macs.

For late 2009, 27 inch screen iMacs, the only other installable GPU options was a 512 MB VRAM GPU chip.

For 2010, 27 inch models, the base models had 512 MB VRAM GPUs with the only other GPU option of a 1 GB VRAM GPU.

For 2011, 27 inch screen iMac models, these came, also, with a base 512 MB VRAM GPU chip.

The options for these model iMacs were 1 GB or 2 GB VRAM GPUs.

All the various GPUs I mentioned are NOT interchangeable between othe iMac model years. Only within their respective model years.

AND you cannot install any old Sockted GPU chip that is currently available in the market place for Windows PCs, either.

The GPUs need to be specifically for an Apple iMac.

So, the iMac you have is never going to be a high powered gaming computer.

Sorry.

don't think any imacs had changable graphics cards since some of the old 24" from the 200X's not 201X's

Yes, the graphics circuitry is soldered to the main logic board (motherboard in PC speak) - your iMac is the same model as mine.

Although changing the GPU is theoretically possible, it would be very costly (several hundred dollars or equivalent in your local currency, even if you can find somewhere that can/will do it).

At the end of the day, previous posters on this thread are quite correct - most Macs (yours included) are not really built for gaming. Yes, you can play a bit of WoW or App based games without problems and some big-name games have been converted for Macs with others available on Steam, but if you are looking to run high powered, graphic intensive games (you mention BF4, which is a good example) at reasonable framerates, here is my advice:

Keep your iMac for other tasks and buy a secondhand XBox360 or PS3 to play games on. I'm not big on gaming, but I do like to play occasionally. Now the PS4 and XBox One are here, you can buy previous models for a very competitive price. Almost 2 years ago, I picked up an XBox360 120gb for the UK equivalent of about $130. It would probably be even less now. An awful lot less than your GPU upgrade and it's a dedicated gaming machine.

Agreed. A new XBox One or Playstation 4 will get you the best gaming experience. Alienware makes some nice gaming PC's - those are going to set you back ~$1,000.

I game fine on my i7 21" imac from 2011 skyrim, borderlands, bioshock ....

Vram only help is the program or game use textures large enough if it dont the memory is left empty and dont speed up a ything

Hello!

The gpu on the 2011 iMac is indeed replaceable. It is not for the faint hearted to do so. It is not a user serviceable part. It is not soldered. My experience is that some iMacs from this generation underperforms to the extreme when it comes to real time rendering with lots of lighting. Compare the result with an older core2duo iMac before you buy into the: it´s not a gaming machine, OS X is not for gaming etc. For what you want to do it should word OK. See if you can compare on an older machine in the hood.

To spot the error I use an old-time game i play to check. any Mac with core2duo and on handles it fine. Imacs with bad behavior starts to get jerky action as soon as there is lighting to calculate. The behavior seems to remain in bootcamp so it is something that is not right with the way hardware is assembled. Faulty jumper position if there even

are such have been blamed. Exact same gen iMac may behave fine so... My machine is old enough now for me to dare a gpu replacement. But as it is the family computer I need to own a replacement before wrecking it. 🙂

There are many posts on the web about replacing gpu on 2011 iMacs if you dare chance wrecking it.